The 911 dispatcher wanted her to stay on the line. She wondered what kind of danger her son was in. He was normally a homebody who liked to eat and work out. He liked to make everyone laugh. He worked as an accountant and lived in a condo in downtown Orlando.

“Lives in a sky house, like the Jeffersons,” she would say. “He lives rich.”

She knew he was gay and at a club — and all the complications that might entail. Fear surged through her as she waited for his next message.

At 2:39 a.m., he responded:

“Call them mommy

Now.”

He wrote that he was in the bathroom.

“He’s coming

I’m gonna die.”

Justice asked her son if anyone was hurt and which bathroom he was in.

“Lots. Yes,” he responded at 2:42 a.m.

When he didn’t text back, she sent several more messages. Was he with police?

“Text me please,” she wrote.

“No,” he wrote four minutes later. “Still here in bathroom. He has us. They need to come get us.”

At 2:49 a.m., she told him the police were there and to let her know when he saw them.